Bottom post of the previous page:
Lol.... thats quite amusing and eerily similar to my family. I grew up in West Africa, and when I was young my Father's boss over there decided he was going to go to Australia to get into mining (His Granfather had lived in Aus mining.) Mum and Dad were going to take up his invite and do the 10 pound on a boat offer Aus had going at the time for prospective UK emigrants but my Mother became pregnant with my brother, so they delayed it. After my brother came along my parents decided it might not be ideal bring up a young family in an outback mining environment so backed out.Ian-S wrote: ↑2 years agoYeah I'm British, I very nearly did become Australian, just after I was born my parents got the opportunity to emigrate, they were actually supposed to go with some friends around the time mum fell pregnant with me, so they didn't go, they were all set to go when I was about 6 months old but the friends that had emigrated the previous year (same profession) came back saying it wasn't as good as they'd been told, so I ended up staying here.Everso Biggyballies wrote: ↑2 years ago
Im not sure @Ian-S is in any way Australian. AFAIK he is as British as I still am, despite my permanent Aus. resident status ..... I just happen to live in Aus and as another song says, I still call Australia home. @theracer120 is more Aussie than me and not on your list of mentions
Im not sure why a German group / song should be dedicated to Aussies.... we dont all run around in bikinis.
As it happens the guy that offered my Dad the chance to come to Aus to set up in mining had all the stars line up and got in at a boom time for mining here, became a multi millionaire (he has an outback highway named after him)... when I say he was wealthy he used to spend 3 months of the year with his wife in the UK keeping in touch with family etc living in a suite at the Dorchester Hotel in London! Im sure Dad always regretted not doing the move with him, but as with your family circumstances were not right at the time.
Moving on a few years after I finished my education two my best friends went to Aus, one with a short term training job for a year, the other (whose sister I used to go out with) to s end six months with family. I was going to tag along for a budget backpacker holiday but then got offered a job in the UK that I really wanted, so backed out.
A few years later in another job where I worked in Croydon, they decided to close all their 'London' office down and relocate everything to their factory in Swansea. I had just bought a house in Surrey so did not like the idea of living in Swansea so was going to 'take the package'. A couple of weeks before I was due to leave they said to me, I know Swansea was too far from your comfort zone to move to but we are looking to expand into Australia and need someone to go there for 2-3 years to evaluate the market with a view to setting up a local office there, would I be interested.. So I said yes straight away. When I got my offer to go to Australia my Mum and Dad were very supportive and said go for it whilst you have no ties, remembering the opportunity they knocked back.
Moved to Australia on a three year contract, accomodation all paid for, car and a wage etc plus saw Aus at the company's expense rather than the backpacker trip.... I did the research and they decided to set up locally. Only problem was my boss wanted to come out here to run it, so no job for me. I had met my wife to be out here so when my contract was up, chose to stay in Aus, got another job, got married, permanent residency etc. That was 30+ years ago. After a couple of false starts I ended up in Aus..